I imagine a lot of you kept an eye on MccKoy4U2's gold clover bud Smiley - sold for $775, a bargain had it been real, but with Larry as the seller, very doubtful. Really sad but there always seems to be an unsuspecting collector to purchase his listings.

The market is soft but for rare jars there are still buyers - this isn't Shawnee, but a rare jar that brought a good price - $7,777.77 Cookie Jar, the McCoy white squirrel jar that sold this week on Ebay. I am not a McCoy collector but have seen jars such as this go high at Zanesville Pottery Festival - the most exciting auctions I have ever attended. Phenomenal cookie jar prices as well as the rarest of rare pottery!

I had an intriguing conversation regarding the markings on some Shawnee jars - have to admit I have not gotten around to checking mine but this is something I had never heard of - possibly because none of us really examine the jars or might not have even noticed when checking for hairlines or damage - numerous jars have been found with number inscribed on the neck of the jar lid. Doubt these could all be test jars but possibly an identifying mark for a certain period early on? Also these jars came from different sellers. I will have to report next month some of the jars found with these "serial numbers" as the collector is out of town right now. In the meantime check the inner neck rim on some of your jars and see if any are marked numerically.

Also received a picture of a wonderful Smiley jar with hair, a bug and the rare hand painted flowers on the base - interestingly one of my Hairy Smileys also came with this base - unfortunately not the bug though. I was so worried about the head arriving intact from an inexperienced packer I almost told them to keep the base then almost fainted when I unwrapped it to see the rare base. The only other jar I have seen this on is the gold Lucky - take note of the green and rust colors - this is so typical of the decor used.

Note our expert doctorer of Shawnee (Mcckoy4U2) has produced a Lucky elephant with yellow flowers - NOT AUTHENTIC - BEWARE.

Shown below

Another interesting find is a gold Puss N Boots jar that has the black on

the tail like normally found on a Muggsy - has anyone else got one of these

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